oooh ! Belgian now US citizen - we just had an Aldi open and I immediately bought some Lebkuchen. One store has Lotus - Biscoff cookies. How I miss the speculaas from Vermeiren in Elversele. And I remember the kandij suiker on strings grandma used to have in her kitchen. We just ate them off the cords. Tried to bake my own long ago, but they did not come out well. I must try this recipe LOL thank you so much !
One of my fondest memories of a trip last year to Brussels was going to Maison Dandoy and ordering a box of one each of every single type of cookies they have! Many were variations on speculaas, and all were delicious. I bought a bag of "cassonade" at a French grocery store later in the trip, excited to try making true speculaas at home, only to discover that it was made from cane, not beet, sugar. Regardless, I look forward to trying these!
As kids in Michigan my brothers and I ate carloads of Windmill cookies from a Dutch bakery in Grand Rapids. Don't remember but it was clearly a Dutch name. 50 years later I found them in North Carolina for a few years - sadly no longer. I suspect they were Speculaas light - we loved them and the brief revival was a treat for me.
several stores have the windmill cookies, but they taste different I think. The best ones I had were when on the road, from Wegmans. The ones at the dollar store are not so good.
Oh my goodness. Speculaas and Biscoff are totally different things! But now that you’ve warned me I’ll be polite when someone inevitably says something like this to me. And Happy St. Nicholas in a few days!
Beet sugar is mentioned as being needed for Kandij sugar. Is regular USA brown sugar an acceptable substitute? I am guessing that regular white cane sugar would change the flavor.
You can use any type of sugar you want, you will still get a lovely biscuit, even cane sugar. Traditional kandij sugar is best but regular brown sugar is ok too, the flavour will be slightly different. I'm pasting the paragraph from above here to explain the difference, sugar in the US is coloured brown, not caramelised: Cassonade or kandij sugar is not to be confused with brown sugar or basterdsuiker, which is popular in the Netherlands and other parts of the world. This is white sugar to which invert sugar is added to prevent hardening, colored with caramel to obtain brown sugar. This is a different product as the process is much less complicated and quicker than cassonade or kandij sugar, but it can also be used for the recipes that require brown sugar. The invert sugar in the sugar will keep bakes moist for longer. Another type of brown sugar is made by adding sugarcane molasses to refined white sugar – washing this type of sugar will reveal underlying white crystals. This is a process that is common in the United States.
In the U.S., it’s easy for me to find all the colors of Belgian cassonade at my local homebrew store. But I don’t typically see basterdsuiker here, unless I go out of my way to visit a Dutch store in western Michigan, about an hour away from where my MIL lives. Is American brown sugar a good substitute for the Dutch version, or is there something better to use in making Dutch recipes such as for Zeeuwse bolusen?
Was very surprised to see this article as I've been working on a YouTube video on the history of speculaas/oos. I was getting a bit annoyed at the internet's insistence that one's Dutch, the other one Belgian whereas I (growing up in Belgium) I always saw the two as interchangeable (I assumed the -oos was due to our local slang, the East bank of the Scheldt has a habit of turning "a" into "o" sounds)
One takeaway from my research was that the division "big amount vs tiny amount" of spice is not a Belgo-Dutch division but more a city vs country one. I did note that the kandij vs bastard sugar does seem to be a pretty hard North-South divide. Still looking for a Dutch baker who uses kandij.
Anyway, thanks for all your articles, they've been a great help for me! I have it on good authority that your most recent book is waiting from me under a tree.
Do you know of a good recipe to make a homemade version of Kandij sugar? I hear you that it’s not the same as the industrial version but given that sugar breaks down at 160 C which is easily achievable in the home kitchen I wonder if it might be possible to do something approximate. Your description of the black syrup also reminds me of Vietnamese caramel sauce, used in savory cooking: https://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2007/10/caramel-sauce.html.
Yes the link is in the article to the post where they try and make it themselves. You can but it is never as dark as the real thing. But a fun experiment
I just checked the link - it's Stella Parks, one of my favorite recipe writers! She calls for her own toasted sugar (i.e. baked in the oven), which I've done before baking other of her recipes where she calls for it (e.g. she uses it in an angel food cake to increase complexity and reduce sweetness I believe), but it's still fairly blond and close to white sugar, nothing like the dark syrup you're describing here. Do you know of anyone who has tried makes it as a stovetop caramel and really breaks it down so it's very dark, analogous to the Viet-style caramel sauce? It seems to be a very doable thing given the temp at which sugar breaks down, but I'm not familiar with Kandij sugar so maybe I'm missing something.
I'm Dutch living in Ireland for 45+ year... and still love Speculaas (as it will always be for me!). Thanks for the memories and the wonderful history of Speculaas. Your depth of knowledge and the details in your article are fantastic! Thank you!
Wow, I loved this post. I found it on my Substack recommendations and had to click on it. I've been living in Belgium for the past 2.5 years and never knew about the origins of this biscuit. I subscribed already :)
Thank you for the history and recipe! have made speculaas for Sinterklaas Day several years now to celebrate my late husband’s heritage. I live in Canada, so have had to merge several recipes to get one that works for me (using volume measures, for example rather than weight). I bought some wooden molds online during the pandemic from a Dutch store in Holland, Michigan. This year I was finally successful and proud of the results.
I buy Speculoos at Trader Joe’s. We have two every morning dunked in coffee. They’re great! They’ve called caramelized cinnamon spiced Belgian cookies and they come from Belgium.
oooh ! Belgian now US citizen - we just had an Aldi open and I immediately bought some Lebkuchen. One store has Lotus - Biscoff cookies. How I miss the speculaas from Vermeiren in Elversele. And I remember the kandij suiker on strings grandma used to have in her kitchen. We just ate them off the cords. Tried to bake my own long ago, but they did not come out well. I must try this recipe LOL thank you so much !
Vermeiren speculaas is one of my favourites too!
One of my fondest memories of a trip last year to Brussels was going to Maison Dandoy and ordering a box of one each of every single type of cookies they have! Many were variations on speculaas, and all were delicious. I bought a bag of "cassonade" at a French grocery store later in the trip, excited to try making true speculaas at home, only to discover that it was made from cane, not beet, sugar. Regardless, I look forward to trying these!
So pleased to hear! You can make it from cane, Candico makes it from beet but it's all about the process!
As kids in Michigan my brothers and I ate carloads of Windmill cookies from a Dutch bakery in Grand Rapids. Don't remember but it was clearly a Dutch name. 50 years later I found them in North Carolina for a few years - sadly no longer. I suspect they were Speculaas light - we loved them and the brief revival was a treat for me.
several stores have the windmill cookies, but they taste different I think. The best ones I had were when on the road, from Wegmans. The ones at the dollar store are not so good.
Oh my goodness. Speculaas and Biscoff are totally different things! But now that you’ve warned me I’ll be polite when someone inevitably says something like this to me. And Happy St. Nicholas in a few days!
Haha now you are in the know!!
Beet sugar is mentioned as being needed for Kandij sugar. Is regular USA brown sugar an acceptable substitute? I am guessing that regular white cane sugar would change the flavor.
You can use any type of sugar you want, you will still get a lovely biscuit, even cane sugar. Traditional kandij sugar is best but regular brown sugar is ok too, the flavour will be slightly different. I'm pasting the paragraph from above here to explain the difference, sugar in the US is coloured brown, not caramelised: Cassonade or kandij sugar is not to be confused with brown sugar or basterdsuiker, which is popular in the Netherlands and other parts of the world. This is white sugar to which invert sugar is added to prevent hardening, colored with caramel to obtain brown sugar. This is a different product as the process is much less complicated and quicker than cassonade or kandij sugar, but it can also be used for the recipes that require brown sugar. The invert sugar in the sugar will keep bakes moist for longer. Another type of brown sugar is made by adding sugarcane molasses to refined white sugar – washing this type of sugar will reveal underlying white crystals. This is a process that is common in the United States.
Happy baking!!
Merry Christmas dear Regula xxx
Thank you Nic, happy Saint Nicholas to you! xx
In the U.S., it’s easy for me to find all the colors of Belgian cassonade at my local homebrew store. But I don’t typically see basterdsuiker here, unless I go out of my way to visit a Dutch store in western Michigan, about an hour away from where my MIL lives. Is American brown sugar a good substitute for the Dutch version, or is there something better to use in making Dutch recipes such as for Zeeuwse bolusen?
Was very surprised to see this article as I've been working on a YouTube video on the history of speculaas/oos. I was getting a bit annoyed at the internet's insistence that one's Dutch, the other one Belgian whereas I (growing up in Belgium) I always saw the two as interchangeable (I assumed the -oos was due to our local slang, the East bank of the Scheldt has a habit of turning "a" into "o" sounds)
One takeaway from my research was that the division "big amount vs tiny amount" of spice is not a Belgo-Dutch division but more a city vs country one. I did note that the kandij vs bastard sugar does seem to be a pretty hard North-South divide. Still looking for a Dutch baker who uses kandij.
Anyway, thanks for all your articles, they've been a great help for me! I have it on good authority that your most recent book is waiting from me under a tree.
Do you know of a good recipe to make a homemade version of Kandij sugar? I hear you that it’s not the same as the industrial version but given that sugar breaks down at 160 C which is easily achievable in the home kitchen I wonder if it might be possible to do something approximate. Your description of the black syrup also reminds me of Vietnamese caramel sauce, used in savory cooking: https://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2007/10/caramel-sauce.html.
Yes the link is in the article to the post where they try and make it themselves. You can but it is never as dark as the real thing. But a fun experiment
Oh, thanks! I missed it!
I just checked the link - it's Stella Parks, one of my favorite recipe writers! She calls for her own toasted sugar (i.e. baked in the oven), which I've done before baking other of her recipes where she calls for it (e.g. she uses it in an angel food cake to increase complexity and reduce sweetness I believe), but it's still fairly blond and close to white sugar, nothing like the dark syrup you're describing here. Do you know of anyone who has tried makes it as a stovetop caramel and really breaks it down so it's very dark, analogous to the Viet-style caramel sauce? It seems to be a very doable thing given the temp at which sugar breaks down, but I'm not familiar with Kandij sugar so maybe I'm missing something.
I'm Dutch living in Ireland for 45+ year... and still love Speculaas (as it will always be for me!). Thanks for the memories and the wonderful history of Speculaas. Your depth of knowledge and the details in your article are fantastic! Thank you!
Thanks so much!
Wow, I loved this post. I found it on my Substack recommendations and had to click on it. I've been living in Belgium for the past 2.5 years and never knew about the origins of this biscuit. I subscribed already :)
thanks for subscribing!
Spekulatius! As a German, I love this stuff :)
Thank you for the history and recipe! have made speculaas for Sinterklaas Day several years now to celebrate my late husband’s heritage. I live in Canada, so have had to merge several recipes to get one that works for me (using volume measures, for example rather than weight). I bought some wooden molds online during the pandemic from a Dutch store in Holland, Michigan. This year I was finally successful and proud of the results.
In my US edition of my book Dark rye and Honey cake the recipe is in volume if that helps! I'm glad you managed to get it right!
Thank you!
I buy Speculoos at Trader Joe’s. We have two every morning dunked in coffee. They’re great! They’ve called caramelized cinnamon spiced Belgian cookies and they come from Belgium.
So weird they call it that! But sounds like the real deal! Enjoy your morning coffee!